Another Turning Point in Iraq

We already know that the invasion of Iraq has turned a land once governed by a toothless secular dictatorship into a lawless training ground where jihadis can hone their skills in operations against U.S. soldiers. But now it turns out that American street gangs, taking advantage of the lower recruitment standards made necessary by Bush’s abuse of the military, are getting their members enlisted in order to capitalize on their military training and connections when they return to their neighborhoods. As the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

The Gangster Disciples, Latin Kings and Vice Lords were born decades ago in Chicago’s most violent neighborhoods. Now, their gang graffiti is showing up 6,400 miles away in one of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods – Iraq.

Armored vehicles, concrete barricades and bathroom walls all have served as canvasses for their spray-painted gang art. At Camp Cedar II, about 185 miles southeast of Baghdad, a guard shack was recently defaced with “GDN” for Gangster Disciple Nation, along with the gang’s six-pointed star and the word “Chitown,” a soldier who photographed it said.

… Of paramount concern is whether gang-affiliated soldiers’ training will make them deadly urban warriors when they return to civilian life and if some are using their access to military equipment to supply gangs at home, said Barfield and other experts.

I tell you, this Iraq war idea has been a winner all around. We remove one of Iran’s most bitter enemies and replace him with a nascent Muslim theocracy wedded to Tehran. We give radical Islamist groups a once-in-a-lifetime recruitment tool and a training area for their terrorists. We give already violent American street gangs the training they need to turn city streets into free-fire zones. And we spend ourselves into the poorhouse doing it. Brilliant!

There’s an old ethnic joke: How do you set an ethnic up with a small business? You give him a big business, and then you wait.

Here’s the 21st century version: How do you make George W. Bush the ruler of a Third World nation?